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Googler... ex-Googler

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Re: Googler... ex-Googler

#501

Post by bbqfog »

LPisGood wrote: post #477
spicyusername wrote: post #468

I really was just a fuckin cog in a mega corp. Yep. One of the most unfortunate realities of modernity. Your managers, or your managers managers, or their managers don't care about you. At all. If you ask them on the weekend, they'll decry that the things they are asked to do are horrible. but they'll still do it. Some gladly. They are themselves cogs in the machine. A machine that goes all the way to the executive c…

I feel like this is a very dramatic view of things. Have you ever been in a management position?

I have and this poster is spot on, he needs to go higher up the chain though. Investors hate employees, even founders. Founders are out to get rich. Executives are out to get rich but don't have what it takes to be founders. All of these people detest labor. They are the enemy you must work with to buy food. Treat them as such.

Re: Googler... ex-Googler

#502

Post by vonneumannstan »

spicyusername wrote: post #468

I really was just a fuckin cog in a mega corp. Yep. One of the most unfortunate realities of modernity. Your managers, or your managers managers, or their managers don't care about you. At all. If you ask them on the weekend, they'll decry that the things they are asked to do are horrible. but they'll still do it. Some gladly. They are themselves cogs in the machine. A machine that goes all the way to the executive c…

>I really was just a fuckin cog in a mega corp. >Yep. One of the most unfortunate realities of modernity.

The crazy thing to me is the lack of awareness of these people. Has hiring at Google fallen off that badly? Was there always such a gap between 'smart enough to work at google' and 'smart enough to realize their corpo-we're one big family-speak is total BS' ?

Re: Googler... ex-Googler

#503

Post by Spooky23 »

trelane wrote: post #478
Spooky23 wrote: post #414

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tech is always boom/bust. We’re lucky to have had a long boom. I’m personally well acquainted with many people in tech, especially big tech. Many of them are doing little or nothing, certainly not justifying $300k+ salaries. What you do has risk but is fundamentally more honest - your skills are around technology and output, not navigating corporate bureaucracy.

I am always skeptical of claims that some workers are just lazy bums skimming money. I don't think most folks graduate college and think, "You know what sounds amazing? Sitting at a desk doing nothing five days a week!" I expect most of the time they have good reason to be "unproductive," and would respond positively to those reasons getting addressed, or you're not capturing their contributions accurately with whate…

It’s not the people, it’s the process. In a big organization you need to be actively managing your career to be in the right places.

And people are doing things, I’m not saying they’re sitting making paper airplanes — just things with no value or that drain their value. I had a high school friend who was brilliant, but his career got nerfed when he stuck with a bad tech/business unit.

If you’re the world’s premier expert in some peculiar process that only exists in one place, that’s no mas. Companies have been rolling in dough for a long time and some have way more people than they used to. One big company I deal with went from an account team of 6 to almost 50.

Re: Googler... ex-Googler

#504

Post by vonneumannstan »

jmyeet wrote: post #434
javawizard wrote: post #396

That was painful to read. I had a very similar experience at Google about a year ago, and the worst part of it was that they did it 2 weeks before I was set to receive a 6-figure retention bonus for sticking around for 2 years after an acquisition. Several other members of my team got the boot at the same time. All of us had come in via that acquisition and were set to receive that bonus, and because of the layoffs,…

You should consult a lawyer about this. You might be SOL but if this happened to several people, you might be able to show the company didn't act in good faith because there's a pattern of people about to receive their bonus being laid off. Layoffs aren't meant to work that way. Generally layoffs involve someone who doesn't know who you are picking names almost at random from a spreadsheet. Management may fight for c…

>2. You are terminated with cause within that period.

Are layoffs considered to be with cause?

Re: Googler... ex-Googler

#505

Post by nikolayasdf123 »

spicyusername wrote: post #468

I really was just a fuckin cog in a mega corp. Yep. One of the most unfortunate realities of modernity. Your managers, or your managers managers, or their managers don't care about you. At all. If you ask them on the weekend, they'll decry that the things they are asked to do are horrible. but they'll still do it. Some gladly. They are themselves cogs in the machine. A machine that goes all the way to the executive c…

> I really was just a fuckin cog in a mega corp.

yep, you always was.

bigtech and corporate make a good illusion that you aren't. brace, if you let yourself believe in that illusion.

Re: Googler... ex-Googler

#506

Post by mixermachine »

jillesvangurp wrote: post #148

I experienced something similar at Nokia around the time things were starting to go bad (due to competition from Google and Apple). I got caught up in one of the earlier layoff rounds. As I've been able to reconstruct since then what happened was roughly that: - I got a excellent performance review and a small raise. All good, keep on doing what you are doing! I was pretty happy. - Nokia started to prepare for layoff…

> job security is an illusion

Depends a bit on your country. My CEO can fire me but there is a longer notice period depending on how long I have been with the company.

- 2 years: 1 month

- 5 years: 2 months

- 8 years: 3 months

...

- 20 years: 7 months

Germany btw.

Re: Googler... ex-Googler

#507

Post by acdha »

therealpygon wrote: post #500
abdj8 wrote: post #110

Layoffs are a difficult thing for employees and their managers. I have seen people (one was a VP of Engineering) escorted out of the building, sent in a cab to home along with a security guard (this was in India), not allowed access to computer or talk with other employees. But, recently have had a very different experience. The current company I work for announced 30% layoffs. The list was made public within one hou…

As it should be, but emotional people make emotional choices. The trusted and valued employee yesterday can turn on a dime and become malicious when they feel they have been wronged regardless of whether that is independently true. Their resulting actions can include anything from theft of IP to hand over to a competitor, to destruction of records or property. Worse, it is impossible to tell when someone will choose…

> The trusted and valued employee yesterday can turn on a dime and become malicious when they feel they have been wronged regardless of whether that is independently true.

On the flip side, treating them like a crook seems more likely to inspire that kind of revenge instinct. Most people would understand removing privileged access immediately but giving them a dignified exit seems more likely to prevent problems.

Re: Googler... ex-Googler

#508

Post by shadowgovt »

apexalpha wrote: post #149
abdj8 wrote: post #110

Layoffs are a difficult thing for employees and their managers. I have seen people (one was a VP of Engineering) escorted out of the building, sent in a cab to home along with a security guard (this was in India), not allowed access to computer or talk with other employees. But, recently have had a very different experience. The current company I work for announced 30% layoffs. The list was made public within one hou…

Weird, as someone from Europe I've never experience anything else. Layoffs here are always done in conjunction with the unions. People are moved to different jobs, helped with training etc... Only in very critical jobs they'd walk you out immediately but then you still get the pay.

I worked at a company with a US division and a German division.

It was stark, the difference in process between the two countries. Leadership was openly complaining about how they couldn't close out shuttering the company because it was going to take six months to handle legal compliance in Germany.

This was during an all-hands, and one delightfully brave soul who knew it didn't matter much what he said since we were all exiting anyway commented in the public channel "Because of those laws, the American employees also get a six-month heads up instead of a locked door when they drive in in the morning, so today, we're all very grateful to Germany and our German peers."

Re: Googler... ex-Googler

#509

Post by acdha »

eloisant wrote: post #403
pclmulqdq wrote: post #345

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He said that with incorrect information about how layoffs in America work.

No I didn't. I know how layoffs works in America because I've been laid off in America.

You know how it worked for you. What you described is not a legal requirement and many other people have had different experiences.

Re: Googler... ex-Googler

#510

Post by HenryBemis »

> I really was just a fuckin cog in a mega corp.

Sorry to hear. Yups you are/were/will be. It happened before. It will happen again. Perhaps not to you, but to me, him (pointing left), her (pointing right).

Save as much as you can. Invest as much as you can. "Anything that can go wrong will go wrong."

I don't seem to sound like an asshole. For the past couple of decades "your services are no longer required - please return your laptop" happens on a monthly basis. If you follow the news (and I believe all of us here do), every now and then we read about Company XYZ laying off 3000. Company ABC laying off 5000. So, it's just a roulette and it has to do where the ball will sit. It's not personal (in 99.9% of the cases).

I had the 'pleasure' a few years back to work for a global bank and I was asked on a quarterly basis to give names of who will be gone on the next round(s). Nothing personal. Simple arithmetic.

So.. save, invest, keep emergency fund(s), and you will be ok.

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